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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26044108">A Life Well Lived</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AXEe/pseuds/AXEe'>AXEe</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fighter Pilots, Gen, Short One Shot, World War II</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:08:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,932</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26044108</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AXEe/pseuds/AXEe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
      <p>Some more original work from me! Enjoy! :=)</p>
    </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Life Well Lived</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Some more original work from me! Enjoy! :=)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>**</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>1969…</strong>
</p><p>The attic was dusty to say the least.   A virtual canyon of cardboard boxes climbed to the ceiling, making moving about the small space a difficult endeavor to put it mildly.</p><p>Grunting, Alice Melody stumbled back as she finally succeeded to grabbing hold of the large box at the very top of the tallest stack.   Lowering it to the floor, she coughed at the cloud of dust swirling around it, the tiny motes catching the light.</p><p>Still gagging at the dust, Alice frowned at the writing on the box in faded black marker.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <strong>PHOTOS/MEMORABILIA (1944-1945)</strong>
  </p>
</div>Peeling off the yellowed tape holding the box closed, Alice wondered why her mother wanted the photos in this particular box to be displayed at the funeral, but then dismissed it, her mother had always been the type of march to the beat of her own drum, so if she wanted photos from one particular box to be shown at her funeral then so be it.<p>Succeeding in getting the box open, Alice found several framed black-and-white photos.  Pulling the first one out she found that she showed her mother and several of her school friends, the late-Portia Melody center left in the group, her dark brown hair standing in stark contrast to the mostly blonde color of the other girls.</p><p>Inscribed at the bottom of the photo was a simple description</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <strong>The Wolsey Girls</strong>
  </p>
</div>It read, and Alice recalled her mother’s tales of going to a small, all-girls school in her small hometown in rural Kansas.  There had been eight of the so-called ‘Wolsey Girls’ with Portia being the oldest at seventeen and the youngest being a girl named Mary-Jean at only fourteen.<p>Setting the photo aside, Alice dug out the next one, smirking at the sight of her mother, looking to be about four or five, seating on her father’s lap besides a biplane, a crop duster if Alice recalled correctly, Grandpa Melody’s pilot’s cap looking silly and far too big perched atop his daughter’s head.   Smiling, Alice gently set this photo atop the other one before reaching into the box again, frowning as she pulled out a third photo.</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>This photo was almost a copy of the first one, showing the Wolsey Girls standing in a row, arm-in-arm and grinning for the camera, but this time instead of school uniforms they all wore what looked like mechanics’ coveralls and leather jackets and stood under the wing of a large plane.</p><p>Like the first photo, there was a description written at the bottom, slightly faded with time, and squinting, Alice could just make it out.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <strong>The Wolsey WASPs, Camp Davis, North Carolina, 1944</strong>
  </p>
</div>Camp Davis? WASPs? Portia was never in the military.   Now curious, Alice dug through the box, pulling out a thick, heavy piece of cloth.    Carefully unfurling it, she found that it was a leather jacket like in the photo, presumably the one worn by Portia herself.<p>Examining it, Alice found a large patch on the right breast; it showed the top half-sphere of a globe with some kind of angular, abstract bird-like shape next to it.</p><p>Frowning, Alice gathered up the jacket and the photos and carried them downstairs where her husband was hunting through the bric-a-brac in the living room.</p><p>“Hey,” Alice called “have you seen this?” she held up the jacket.</p><p>Frowning, he came over and took it from her.</p><p>“A bomber jacket?” he asked, his confusion clearly equaling hers.</p><p>“I think so,” Alice nodded “I found it up in the attic along with these photos” she showed him the photos.</p><p>“Whoa,” he said slowly, as he gently set the jacket aside and took them from her “now that’s cool,” he grinned “I didn’t know your Mom was a WASP”</p><p>“A what?” Alice asked.</p><p>“A WASP,” he nodded “Woman’s Airforce Service Pilots,” seeing her confusion, he elaborated “they were a civilian branch of the Air Force during World War II,” he explained “they flew fighters and bombers across the Atlantic to Europe to supply the Allies before the U.S. joined the war”</p><p>Alice stared at him.</p><p>“Wait, wait, you’re telling me that my Mother fought in World War II?”</p><p>“Well, no,” he explained “the WASPs never flew in combat, they just ferried the planes overseas.   But still, they helped the war effort”</p><p>“Then how come I’ve never heard of this?” Alice asked.</p><p>He shrugged.</p><p>“It was classified once the war ended,” he explained sadly “the survivors aren’t even entitled to veteran’s benefits”</p><p>Taking the photo back from him, Alice shook her head in disbelief, feeling herself grin as she processed this new, secret facit of her mother’s life...</p><p>
  <strong>END</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>HISTORICAL NOTE</strong>
</p><p>The Woman's Airforce Service Pilots or WASP  were a civilian program of the United States Army Air Force and was created from the Woman's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) and the Woman's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) both of which were merged to form the WASP on August 5 1943.   Originally the WASPs role was simply to ferry planes over to Europe to free up male pilots for combat duties and later they towed targets for live-fire anti-aircraft artillery training missions, during this training exercises some WASP pilots were shot in the feet when the planes were shot, and in some cases the men manning the anti-aircraft guns mistook their orders that that they were supposed to shoot at the plane and not the target.   In one case, pilot Mabel Virginia Rawlinson was killed during a night flying practice.   When instructed to return to the airfield by her instructor, the plane clipped the top of a pine tree and crashed, although the instructor was thrown clear, Rawlinson was trapped in the burning plane unable to open the broken cockpit lock.   The later investigation revealed that many of the training planes used the WASP were poorly maintained.</p><p>As time went on, the WASP were allowed to fly more complex planes.   In one instance when male pilots refused to fly the B-29 superfortress, two WASP, Dorthea Johnson and Dora Dougherty Strother, were selected in the idea that, if the men saw women flying the plane, they would be 'embarrassed' into doing the same, the tactic worked and there was 'no more grumbling' from men assigned to fly or train on the B-29.   (Dora Dougherty Strother would go on to work for Bell Aircraft designing helicopter cockpits).</p><p>Despite all their accomplishments, the WASPs were not granted military status, if a WASP was killed then the burial and funeral would be done at the family's expense and traditional military honor, such as a folded flag on the coffin or displaying a standing flag in the window were forbidden.</p><p>Of the one thousand and forty-seven members of the WASP that completed their training, thirty-eight lost their lives in accidents, eleven died during training, and twenty-seven were killed on active duty training missions.</p><p>As civilians, the WASP members did not qualify for military benefits, they were considered U.S. federal employees, and were required to pay out of their own pockets for their own transportation expenses, room and board, and even uniform, and although 'officially' attached to the USAAF, each member did have the option to resign once they'd finished their training.</p><p>As the war wound to a close, many were divided about the status of the program, with the media such as TIME, the New York Post, and the Washington Post urging the women to resign and give the jobs back to the men.   One report in the Washington Times Herald even went so far as to accuse General Henry H. Arnold, the chief of the Army Air Force, of being under the influence of WASP organizer Nancy Harkness Love's "feminine wiles".</p><p>On June 21 1944, a bill to grant the WASP military status was defeated by a 188 against to 169 for vote, this was due in part to male civilian pilots lobbying against the bill, and House Committee report on the Civil Service published on June 5 1944 declared that the WASP was unnecessary, unjustifiably expensive, and recommended the recruitment and training of women pilots be halted.   When the WASP was finally shut down, General Arnold issued an order to all base commanders where WASPs had service that the women be 'granted a certificate similar to an honorable discharge"</p><p>Once the war ended, the files were classified for thirty-five years, further smothering their accomplishments.   In the early 1970s efforts to have the WASPs contributions be recognized began, including by the office of senator Barry Goldwater, who had flown with the WASP during the war.   His efforts were met with prejudice from Congress, according to Goldwater's assistant, "women were treated as non-persons".   In 1977, the WASP files were finally unsealed after the Air Force mistakenly announced that they were training the first women pilots, this time surviving WASP and Senator Goldwater engaged in what they called the "Battle of Congress", trying to drum up enough public support to get the WASP the recognition they deserved.   Opposed to the efforts were various veterans groups, including the VA, the American Legion, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the VA argued that the WASP should not be given military status because no WASP was ever subject to court martial, while the VFW argued that if the WASP was granted military status it would "destroy the special status of veterans and do irreparable damage to veterans benefits"</p><p>In 1977, President Jimmy Carter later signed the P.L.95–202, Section 401, The G.I. Bill Improvement Act of 1977, this bill legally stated that services such as those preformed by the WASP would be considered "active duty" for the purposes of programs like the VA, honorable discharge certificates were issued to surviving WASPs in 1979, and in 1984, each WASP was awarded the World War II Victory Medal, and those who served for more than one year were also awarded the American Theater Medal Ribbon/American Campaign Medal for their service, many of these honors were accepted by the sons and daughters of WASP pilots.</p><p>On July 1, 2009, President Obama awarded the WASP as a whole the Congressional Gold Medal.</p><p>In Camp Davis in North Carolina, the WASP faced the highest levels of discrimination, the base commander, Major Stephenson, told the women that both "they and the plane were expendable", and in the case of one crash, sugar was found in the gas tank, the women were also paid far less then the men (roughly a third less) and were given no training time at Camp Davis.   WASP pilots were also rejected if they were over the age of 35, as it was believed that was when menopause began, and if the war lasted more than five years, then the pilots would be suffering from 'debilitating irrationality', they were also grounded by male commanders during their menstrual cycles due to the belief that they wouldn't be rational or quick-thinking enough while on their periods, but this was stopped once this belief was proven false, but some pilots were still given the option to refuse to fly if they were on their periods as it was seen as a medical disability by military doctors.</p><p>The planes also lacked facilities for women to go to the bathroom, forcing pilots to make frequent stops during long flights and in cases they were denied entry into restaurants because they were wearing pants, and despite President Carter's bill, WASP pilots are still denied burial at Arlington Cemetery due to a claimed lack of space, as 2016, WASP can have their ashes interned at Arlington but not be buried there.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Let me know what you thought :=)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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